NEW YORK –- Kate O’Brian, a 30-year ABC News veteran named president
of Al Jazeera America this week, says the soon-to-be-launched network
will stand out in today's cable news landscape.

“I think there is a gap in the market and I think that the other
competitors to Al Jazeera have stayed doing certain kinds of stories,"
O’Brian said in an interview in The Huffington Post. "And whether its
left-leaning or right-leaning or pundits yapping, the straight-forward,
high-quality, good journalism stories are not being told as much as they
can.”

Al Jazeera has a history of being disruptive. Its Arabic-language
network changed the static news landscape in the Arab world in the
1990’s by offering a satellite alternative to state-run media. The Al
Jazeera Media Network, funded by the oil-rich royal family of Qatar,
later launched Al Jazeera English, a Doha-based, English-language
network that reaches hundreds of millions of homes worldwide. It also
offers a livestream broadcast that international news junkies in the U.S. flocked to during the Arab Spring upheaval.

The global news organization has spared no expense in getting a U.S.
network off the ground to compete with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. In
January, the company shelled out $500 million for Al Gore’s struggling Current TV
in order to gain wider U.S. cable distribution, and in the months that
followed, it hired 700 staffers in preparation for an Aug. 20 launch.

But even with seemingly unlimited resources, can Al Jazeera America break away from the cable news crowd?

Its new stars say yes.

Joie Chen, a veteran of CNN and CBS News who was announced this week
as host of flagship evening news magazine “America Tonight,” said
Wednesday that the show “will bring together the powerful and diverse
voices of Al Jazeera America and stand out from other networks with its
fearless, unbiased reporting.”

Yet some inside the company remain skeptical that the network will
depart from the status quo, especially given that Chen -– like many of
the recent high-profile hires –- hails from established US broadcast and
cable news networks.

One Al Jazeera staffer spoke of getting the impression that “those
launching the channel have little confidence that the mass audience they
seek wants anything terribly different from the current mainstream
programming offered by CNN” and other networks.

Whether or not Al Jazeera America resembles CNN in format or content
remains to be seen, but the network has definitely recruited from the US
cable pioneer.

Kim Bondy left CNN to become executive producer for “America
Tonight.” Former CNN anchor Ali Velshi will host a business show on the
network, while ex-CNN morning host Soledad O’Brien has signed on as a
special correspondent. “America Tonight” correspondent Sheila MacVicar,
who came most recently from CBS News, was once a CNN correspondent. And
the executive team announced this week includes senior vice presidents
David Doss and Shannon High-Bassalik, both previously high-ranking CNN
executives.

Paul Eedle, Al Jazeera America's deputy news and editorial director, recently told The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald
that executives are "building a newsroom culture to embody the Jazeera
spirit" and training new hires "to break free of inhibitions they might
have had and feel liberated and go for the story."

But Greenwald noted that there has been internal debate over the
network's direction. He published an internal email from prominent Al
Jazeera host Marwan Bishara blasting executives for distancing the
American network from Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English in hopes
of appeasing those who view the networks as anti-American. Bishara
specifically took aim at the American network's interim chief executive
Ehab Al Shihabi, claiming that his desire to ingratiate himself with
U.S. leaders had led him “astray.”

DEPARTING FROM AL JAZEERA ENGLISH
In an interview with HuffPost, Al Shihabi downplayed the internal
criticism and said that Al Jazeera encouraged discussion about the
network's direction.

“Al Jazeera, as a culture, is all the time open for any suggestion,
whether that be in an aggressive mode or a soft mode,” Al Shihabi said.
“We don’t take it personal.”

Al Shihabi, who joined Al Jazeera five years ago, also pushed back against early news reports
that 40 percent of Al Jazeera America's programming would come from the
Doha-based Al Jazeera English. He said that was a misconception.

The perception, at least, that the network abandoned its original
plans to devote a significant amount of airtime to Al Jazeera English's
content has prompted criticism, with the English-language network’s
former head Tony Burman recently writing that the American project has
the “odour of potential disaster.”
Al Jazeera America is unlikely to run full Al Jazeera English shows
in their original form. One plan is to create a new version of innovative Al Jazeera English program “The Stream,”
but with an American host: former ABC News correspondent Lisa Fletcher.
If the network brings over hard-hitting Al Jazeera English program
“Inside Story Americas,” meanwhile, host Shihab Rattansi has already indicated on Twitter that he won’t be joining.

Any editorial differences between Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera
English should become apparent once the new network gets off the ground.
Each will have their own White House correspondent, producing stories
geared toward U.S. and international viewers, respectively. There are
still a number of issues to be worked out regarding whether and when the
networks will repurpose each other's content, all the way down to
questions of house style -- such as switching any mention of kilograms
to pounds.

NOT IGNORING THE WORLD
The day after landing her new job, O'Brian spoke to HuffPost about the new network's focus.
“The American viewing audience is unique to America,” she said. “So
everything that we’re going to be producing is for the American viewing
audience. It’s not a value judgment that something is better or worse.
It’s just what the American audience expects. So every decision we make
about formats of shows and anchors of shows and pacing of shows will all
be based on what we, as American journalists, have learned and have
come to expect.”

Although the network is based in the U.S, she added, “it doesn’t mean we will ignore the world.”

“There is no other news media group anywhere that has the resources
and reach that Al Jazeera has,” O’Brian said, noting plans for 12
domestic bureaus to compliment 70-plus bureaus worldwide.

“I will never have to worry that, oh my god, we have to get a team to
this place,” she said. “Or, is the story important enough to actually
send a team to this place? Because Al Jazeera will have somebody or some
team that, if they’re not right there, they’ll be pretty close.”

Al Jazeera America is also investing heavily in investigative
journalism. The network is building a 16-person investigative unit that
could produce enterprise stories not seen on its competitors.

While impossible to judge a network’s coverage pre-launch, O’Brian
suggested U.S. viewers would see a difference. For example, Al Jazeera
America wouldn’t cover the “Royal Baby” frenzy in a “minute-by-minute, breathless, day-in-day-out way
that we've seen some of the competitors out there doing,” she said. As
for the recent round-the-clock Zimmerman coverage, O’Brian said there’s a
“sameness” to daily trial coverage and believes there’s “an audience
out there that wants something different.”

‘IF THEY PLAY IT SAFE, THEY'RE DOOMED
Jay Rosen, an NYU journalism professor and media critic, told
HuffPost that he has a “small suggestion” for the new American network
if it “wants to stand out from the cable news pack.”

“In a prominent spot on their home page, set up three pie charts
showing the percentage of time devoted to the top 15 stories on CNN, Fox
and Al Jazeera over the last 24 hours,” Rosen said. “Then promote the
results.”

Philip Seib, director of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy and author of "The Al Jazeera Effect,"
told HuffPost that the network’s Qatari backers are motivated by the
realization that “you’re not a real international player in the
broadcast world until you’re in the U.S.” Seib pointed out that as the
1996 launch of Al Jazeera put Qatar on the map as a “regional player,”
U.S. expansion is a way to expand its reach as a “global player.”

Seib said the American network has an opportunity to “stake out some
kind of territory in terms of investigative journalism” and perhaps take
a populist approach that holds corporations accountable in a way that
U.S. cable networks may not be doing.

Cracking the Codes: Tim Wise, Fear & EnvyIn
this clip author and anti-racism advocate Tim Wise talks about that
media plays in creating whites' fear and envy of people of color and
other barriers that keep whites from developing authentic personal
relationships with people of color.

Cracking the Codes: Tim Wise, Implicit Bias in the Age of Obama In this clip author and anti-racism advocate Tim Wise shares how white
folks carry implicit negative bias toward people of color will carve out
exceptions for those who seem different from the norm. For more
information on Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity

How do you hold a powerhouse in small spaces? I guess this is how. A little uncomfortable but then it's just there. Thanks, NPR Music

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert - 2012

Video Description:

Tears and laughter in the span of about 15 minutes — that's what's so astonishing about these Macklemore & Ryan Lewis songs.

The
first time I heard "Same Love," it brought tears to the eyes of a
roomful of people, myself included. The song is about equality,
specifically gay rights, with an unambiguous message: "It's human rights
for everybody / There is no difference." Then, in a flip of a
backing-track beat, Macklemore (a.k.a. Ben Haggerty) sings about wearing
a velour jumpsuit and some house slippers, "grandpa style."

The
contrast in these songs, "Same Love" and "Thrift Shop," makes the levity
all that much memorable; as producer, Ryan Lewis is a master at the
hook and clever with the melody. But this Tiny Desk Concert didn't end
there: The live, sweet, soulful sounds of singer Ray Dalton belting,
"Like the ceiling can't hold us" had Macklemore standing on my desk and
shaking the dust off the ceiling tiles. Watching this video fills me
with that inspirational feeling we shared watching it happen: I'm still
cleaning dust around my desk, but it only makes me smile. --BOB BOILEN

A 2-minute clip from White Like Me featuring Tim Wise. Available Fall 2013.

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and
author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens
of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning assessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequity
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise's
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the
first film to bring the full range of his attitudes, electoral politics,
and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think
about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard law
professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others.

White
Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author
Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of
whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the
American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a
post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the
race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle
class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with
the legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality
and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise’s
bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our
most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first
film to bring the full range of his work to the screen — to show how
white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral
politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop
to think about. Features bestselling author Michelle Alexander, Harvard
law professor Charles Ogletree, legal scholar Imani Perry, and others. -
See more at:
http://www.mediaed.org/wp/production-update-request-white-like-me#sthash.kWQs4op4.dpuf

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Anti-racist speaker, author, activist Tim Wise Responds to the "Some-of-my-best-friends-are black" Defense - 2013Video Description To help us make sense of the Zimmerman verdict and the conversations
surrounding it, we looked to Tim Wise for some answers. Here he reacts
to the assertions made by defenders of Zimmerman suggesting he couldn't
possibly be influenced by race because he has black friends, dated an
African American girl and mentored black children.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Per NPR Music:Patty Griffin has always had a gift for locating a song's nerve endings;
for surveying her subject matter and identifying the most efficient
possible pathways to listeners' emotions. Her warm, wise voice is
comforting, inviting and relatable, even — perhaps especially — as she
tackles weighty subjects like middle age and the death of a parent.

The
memory of Griffin's father hangs over her recent seventh album,
American Kid, but the singer remains far too resourceful to make it a
collection of navel-gazing dirges about mortality. In sampling a few of
the record's many highlights at the NPR Music offices, she takes care to
balance the exquisite mourning of "Faithful Son" — and the sweetly
somber "That Kind of Lonely," which Griffin describes as "a song about
finally letting go of your delayed adolescence" — by closing her set
with the playfully bawdy, kindly celebratory "Get Ready Marie." Inspired
by a favorite photo of her grandparents, the song finds Griffin viewing
two complicated lives with the generous, hopeful eye she's been casting
on her subjects for three fruitful decades now. --STEPHEN THOMPSON

My new purchase! Mint green is my favorite color, and I'm very particular about the hue. I'd say I'm a Wintermint gal.

I found this randomly, while doing an internet search. I purchased this $35 Geneva Platinum watch from Urban Attic Boutique.

Silicon strap mint watch with gold detail. The face of the watch on the model below looks much larger than the above photos. I won't complain. The mint looks much brighter, which may just be due to the lighting of the photo. As long as the color doesn't resemble sea foam, I'll be fine.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer. Let them. In a
passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a
dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new
relationship between artist and fan.

TEDTalks is a daily video
podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,
where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their
lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology,
Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the
arts and much more.Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate

Do you remember the first cassette tape you ever owned? I do. Are you a fan of mixed tape nostalgia? Definitely, sometimes.

I am eager to meet Cassette: A Documentary. Visit the website, and you will see the timeline of production. The film is scheduled to complete by later this year. The film that speaks to the history of the audio cassette, features some impressive musicians that reminisce about the tape days. In the trailer below you'll see some of worthy note. Daniel Johnston, Mike Watt, Ian Mackaye, and Henry Rollins.

About Me

I believe story telling is an art form and blogging is a medium in which to share stories and ideas. Within this blog I hope to cover a spectrum of topics. From the serious to the silly. Here you will read my views and inquiries about subjects such as feminism, other various socio-political issues, psychology, spirituality, sexuality, and general interests such as film, art and music. You will also be exposed to my obsession with cupcakes, tea, books, Hello Kitty, and quirky day to day journeys. I enjoy learning from others as I am constantly attempting to introspect, grow and evolve. During this process I will be jotting down musings on this blog. Pull up a comfy chair and a spot of tea and join me!